Pithy Title Here

A friend was joking that we should all convert our savings accounts into gold. After all, his theory was, what if the value of the dollar just suddenly collapses? It looks like pretty much every currency is going down right now. So maybe it evens up. But I was thinking that gold might not be such a good investment. Think about it. What do we use gold for? At this point, decoration. By that I mean jewelry. And tooth fillings. But that requires people buying it in the long term. My suggestion back to my friend was that we should all just start bottling up clean water. That way, when the economic apocalypse comes, and people start hunting and gathering, we'll have the one commodity everyone needs: clean water. Lots of it. Unf ., from what I can tell, water is not traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Someone's missing out on a gold mine here Or in this case, a spring!

Saginaw, Michigan is not a place I have been. Looking at Google Maps, it seems like it could be more remote, however, it does seem like a place where one could get bored. Boredom, of course, leads to bad ideas. Like this : AP - A man has pleaded no contest to indecent exposure after police said he was arrested for performing a sex act with a car wash vacuum. Uh huh. A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt but will be treated as one at sentencing on March 25. Police said the man was arrested after a resident called officers early on Oct. 16 to report suspicious activity at a car wash in Thomas Township, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit . So wait... a resident noticed something and it was still going on minutes later when police arrived? See, this article, to its credit, is low on what you might call "the gory details." The problem here is I have a tremendous imagination. And right now, it's not a good thing to have.

I'm trying to decide how I feel about this band. I first heard this song before the holidays and didn't know where I stood on it. Then I decided I liked it, though it's pretty overtly trying to be The Arcade Fire. The album is not, though and I've been trying it on for size. Anyhow, since I heard it on Tampa radio today, it will soon be on every rock stations (if it's not already), so might as well weigh in now: Sometime Around Midnight - The Airborne Toxic Event

Two weeks ago, I flew from NYC to Orlando at night. We flew over the Tidewater area of Virginia, which is important only in that I knew as soon as the lights from that metropolis faded, I was over North Carolina (which is relevant b/c I could pick out where we were and other things you don't care about...). What is notable is that when we got somewhere over eastern NC, there were wildfires. Big ones. Like, able to see flames and their eerie reflection off billowing smoke thousands of feet below. Now, in 2003, I flew to LA at the height of some terrible California wildfires. And by bad I mean, smoke 15,000 feet in the air huge. So these were small fires. The key word in that last sentence, though, is "these." They are everywhere . Flying from Charlotte to Tampa today, I saw tons from the air. These were not factories or plants billowing ick from smokestacks. This was smoke rising from acres of land. As I drove south on I-75 from Tampa to Sarasota I drove by one o

The sign says: "Waffle Stop - Eat With Elvis."

I am getting more and more annoyed as the economy worsens and not for the reasons you might think. Take, for example, this morning's article in the Charlotte Observer . Therein, we find a lot of bank stock shareholders whining. Things are so bad for them. One guy sunk $35K into a bank and he's nearly lost it all. And now there's this talk of nationalization... it's just not fair. He could lose everything. Was I the only one reading the news a couple years ago, when the personal savings rate was below zero and debt was rising more than ever - even as incomes stayed flat, thinking "Golly gee whillickers , maybe the lunatics are running the asylum!"?? Because they were. Stocks were soaring. But built on what? I asked people who knew this stuff better than me at the time and they came back with nothing to reassure me. Basically, they said, "well, but growth is good!" They never said how we would sustain it. Last year the Dow was up over 14,000.

More to come on these, but... Slumdog Millionaire IS as good as you've been told. Tremendously well-acted, it is intense on every front. There are some critics saying otherwise. Those people, it can be said with certainty, either have no souls or are the kinds of people who bitch about free Miller Lite. Second... I have been extremely critical of U2 since All That You Can't Leave Behind. I have felt like they put their creativity in a box since Pop, favoring indulgent songs that please their ultra-entitled fans. Their new disc shows otherwise. I cannot stop listening to it. Songs are subtle, relying not on Bono's bravado, but the flat out skill of the entire group. It's nice to have them back. More to come...

Let us turn to our friends at Reuters, who bring us this lovely romp . As always, I don't need to type when they can tell it so much better: BHUBANESWAR , India (Reuters) – An infant boy was married off to his neighbors' dog in eastern India by villagers, who said it will stop the groom from being killed by wild animals , officials and witnesses said on Wednesday. Around 150 tribespeople performed the ritual recently in a hamlet in the state of Orissa's Jajpur district after the boy, who is under two years old, grew a tooth on his upper gum. The Munda tribe see such a growth in young children as a bad omen and believe it makes them prone to attacks by tigers and other animals. The tribal god will bless the child and ward off evil spirits after the marriage. OK... so... uh... No dowry was exchanged, the witness said, and the boy will still be able to marry a human bride in the future without filing for divorce.

Tomorrow will be a day of planes, trains and automobiles for me (no really, US Airways in the morning, the DC Metro and then a car ride). So not a lot of time for blogging. But tomorrow is Tuesday, and that means I owe you a song. Our selection this week by the British hot band du jour , Glasvegas . I actually am enjoying this group, though... worth checking out. Here's "Geraldine:" Geraldine - Glasvegas

Last summer, I feel into a nice rhythm of going to a Sunday morning spinning class. Then the NFL season started. Then it was the holidays. And for that time of year, Sundays just weren't working for me to go hit a bike for an hour. Since getting through the holidays, though, I've been hitting the gym even harder, getting myself back into shape for spinning. Today was the first Sunday morning spin I've done since August. And it went very well, but a few observations: Apparently, it's vital to have a sadistic spinning instructor. I mean, she pushes everyone to bring out their best, but she's not afraid to call the room out when they're not. Teenage girls who look affected for the first half hour - barely moving the pedals - and then walk out should just stay home. Spinning is not for everyone and, yes, by the end of class you will look sweaty and grimy . And if you cannot bear to deal with that, please stay home. The music is vital. A group of coworkers an

Today, Lily Allen's new CD, It's Not Me, It's You , hits shelves. And not a flipping moment too soon. It's the sass-mouthed, snarky , danceable fun you might expect, but about 20 times more intelligent than the pop drivel we suffered through in 2008. Hopefully, Kelly Clarkson's Swedish songwriters can keep up here next month. Ms. Allen, by the way, writes her own material. Her album is fantastic (I think I like it better than her debut, to be honest). And this, friends, is your current #1 single in the United Kingdom: The Fear - Lily Allen

When we last saw our hero, he was finding out he owes more on his house than he's likely to get on the market. In today's episode... It started innocently enough. We decided that the old fish tank was beyond repair and needed to be replaced. So, out I went to go get a new, smaller tank (with a filter that doesn't sound like the background on a Skinny Puppy song). As we're installing this new aquarium, there's a lot of running to and fro in the house, and on one particular trip, I put my hand against the wall in our hallway and feel something give. And, there, sure enough, is a 4-inch hole in my wall. I barely even touched the damn thing. Fortunately, it's not so much a hole as the beginning of a hole. The part of the wall that would need to be absent to have a true hole in my wall is still somewhat in place. There are no signs of water damage, though, so let's count our blessings there. Now, friends, it gets interesting. I have a home warranty. I w

From time to time, we will use this space to offer you, dear readers, with some clarification on civics and our country's political system. We will do this in as non-partisan a way as possible. And today's issue stems from the fact that everyone on TV is calling the stimulus bill " Obama's stimulus bill." President Obama did request a stimulus bill. He requested it not be solely based on tax cuts, favoring a package that would spend money on infrastructure, putting blue collar people to work, giving them paychecks to spend, creating white-collar jobs to support that spending, etc. Basically, spend government money to create more taxpayers - which makes some sense. All that aside, there's one thing he didn't do: create the legislation . That, friends, is what your legislature - the House and Senate - gets to do. Obama can state his view, but it's your elected representatives and senators that make laws here. So, then, this stimulus people are dis

One thing we do like around here is a good cover of a contemporary song . They come along somewhat rarely... Fountains of Wayne doing up "...Baby One More Time." Or Gnarls covering "Reckoner." Here's one that's been around, but since I have London and all thing British on my mind, it's time: Champagne Supernova (Edit) - Matt Pond Pa

I have an idea for Facebook . I want to be able to update statuses FOR my friends. I would pay for this... maybe a monthly subscription or something. I mean, seriously... don't you have that friend that you see their status update pop up and you think it should read " Suchandsuch is a complete idiot?" Well, dear readers, under my plan, that could happen. Sure, there would be ramifications. For instance, that friend might not talk to you anymore. And you'd have to figure that out. But what about those "friends" who aren't really friends? Think about it. Do you care if that annoying person from whatever place in your past gets mad that you wrote him/her a status that said " Suchandsuch really needs to start thinking about Rogaine ?" No. You don't. And think about it. Other people could comment back on the status like "Damn right!" Anyhow, I think this merits some consideration.

The economy is bad, to be sure. There aren't a lot of upsides to that. When you find an upside, I'm of a mind that you take advantage of it. In this particular case, the upside is that it's dirt cheap to travel overseas right now. So, Sarah & I are going to exercise our passports in a month. Through the continuing magic of Yahoo! Travel - my go-to for el travel cheapo for several years - we've got flights and a hotel in London starting March 4 (or March if you start when we land). I've always felt kinda bad... I've been to Europe and Sarah hasn't. I remember never having been there and being around people who had been. It wasn't any fun. It's one of those things that nothing you can say in that conversation is going to be able to hold serve. Anyhow, for what really looks like bargain pricing, we are going to have a four-night trip. We get to fly directly from Charlotte. I'll get to exercise my new digital SLR in the best way possibl